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Topic: Hives Stolen - reward offered (Read 2975 times)

Hello fellow beeks, I'm hoping you can keep your ears to the ground... I had three hives stolen - each one a triple - from the evening of 24/10 - the morning of 25/10 from a canola crop in Clarkefield, Victoria. If anybody hears anything please let me know! There are some distinctive details that will identify them as mine - Sadly being new boxes added whilst on the crop they weren't branded yet. I know it's unlikely I will see them again but you never know. A trailer was used in the theft and the idiots left the farmers gate open which could have resulted an a few hundred head of sheep on a major road! Any help appreciated and a reward is offered...

Sorry to read about your loss. As I live about as far away from you as it is possible to be I'm pretty sure I will be of little use helping to find your colonies :roll:, but I hope they are found and the culprits dealt with :whip:

Probably a local Ozbuzz. Someone who knew they were there and not far from home, but of course your not far from Melbourne suburbs and they could be in any one of thousands of backyards. Obviously somebody who knows bees. If you are desperate for a hive give me a PM here.

More condolences from the USA... man, I hate hearing that but I think we are going to see more of that and I have a better word than scumbags but I don't want to get banned... hope you find the hives and nail the @^#&^%'s that did it. Luck mate!! John

Thats shizen! could they be seen from the road? I worry about bored kids vandalizing my hives and keep them as hidden as possible. Im from the other side but if i hear of anything i will let you know. Ben

Probably a local Ozbuzz. Someone who knew they were there and not far from home, but of course your not far from Melbourne suburbs and they could be in any one of thousands of backyards. Obviously somebody who knows bees. If you are desperate for a hive give me a PM here.

Hey Geoff,

Yeah, i'm guessing it was a local too! I've contacted all of the schools, pubs, medical centres in the area and reported it to police... hopefully someone hears something... thanks for the offer :) I've got 31 (well less 3) hives at the moment so i've got plenty - it's just annoying with the lost money in the boxes and the honey etc... I'm also going to take a drive around the area and see if i can see them somewhere...

Thats shizen! could they be seen from the road? I worry about bored kids vandalizing my hives and keep them as hidden as possible. Im from the other side but if i hear of anything i will let you know. Ben

Some of them could be seen from the road but you would have to have really looked - they were situated next to a 100kph road so i'm guessing it's someone that travels the road regularly... not happy! i just hope that they slip up somehow and end up getting themselves caught! the police in the area have a real hate of livestock theft and they said if they're caught they're going to have everything thrown at them!

Geelong Beekeepers Club has sent out an email about it. Were your boxes and frames branded?

These lowlifes are a bit discouraged when this they see branding versus paint.. It takes a bit more work but any thing that stops the lazy scum who want to steal is worth it. We met a couple of ?? blokes who happened to have one of my mates boxes due to the number being branded and painted over a few years ago. They were most apologetic about some sort of mix up and we brought that box back along with a couple of additional supers back to my mate. We made a point of letting these confused blokes we had their rego. number and hoped they did make any more mistakes. A big heavy tipped soldering iron will do the job of branding.

I'm just a hobbyist & I keep all of my hives @ home. However I stamp my NSW DPI registration on the inside & outside of every side of the super as well as the bottom edges, tops & frame rest. I also write the rego number on all 4 parts of the frames with texta including the inside & outside surfaces of the end bars- hard to erase when covered in comb.

I don't have a fire brand but I use punch brands. You can get them from hardware stores fairly cheaply. It's a bit laborious but feasible for a backyarder.

I texta my registration number on the outside of the supers to comply with NSW Regs.

I also paint my hives different colours other than white (Bunnings mistints) although that won't prevent the crooks painting them generic white.

If something is gone it is gone. If you can identify it you have a chance to get even with the crooks.

I hope the cops can get a result for you. The rural crime unit in NSW are clued up about bees. I hope the Vic cops are as well.

A mate had 150 singles and double stolen out of a closed coup near Bendigo about a week ago. The bastards that did this probably did during the day due to the swarms sitting in nearby trees. They used a truck to cart away the boxes. All boxes were branded and the police have a bit of an idea who the scum are that did it. the problem will be when these scum are taken to court. Recently another lowlife was sentenced to 100 hours of community service because he had a sad upbringing and little opportunity to pay a fine. The sooner there are some real consequences for these buzzards the better.